Food documentary stirs culinary craze

"Helping Chinese chefs learn the culture behind the cuisine will boost Chinese food overseas, and lift the social status of Chinese chefs," he says. "It is my dream to let foreigners understand that Chinese cuisine can be artistic and beautiful. It is not just chop suey, or sweet and sour pork, or fried rice and noodles."

Blend of Tastes Based on the five basic tastes of sour, sweet, bitter, spicy and salty, Chinese people always enjoy experimenting with different combinations. Going to about 10 different places that cover China's four major cooking styles, this episode aims to show how people are playing with the palate by using different seasoning techniques.

Chen Xiaoqing says of all memories, the memory of the taste bud is the most tenacious. Chinese people can travel around the world and adopt different languages, but they'll always appreciate Chinese food and flavors.

Soon, this outstanding documentary series will be traveling abroad. At the Cannes Festival in April, prospective buyers were shown a trailer of A Bite of China. According to Liu Wen, CCTV 9 will start dubbing the series into English, Russian and Arabic in June, depending on where the program sales orders come from.

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A seven-episode documentary series on the country's favorite subject has stirred up a crest of culinary interest including millions of blog entries and an increase in sales of regional snacks and traditional foods.